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Tag Archives: brand

Companies, like people, can go off track. A simple error compounds. The wrong attitude takes root. A poorly designed strategy is implemented. Perhaps the focus is just a bit off, sending everything off course. It happens.

What do you do if you are off track? How do you recognize the signs?

There are two branding experts that I turn to when it comes to branding and revitalizing brands: Larry Light and Joan Kiddon. They not only have the experience, but their advice is my favorite kind: practical and actionable. I’m not one for studying theories that I can’t immediately use.

I recently spoke with the authors about the troubling behaviors and attitudes that cause companies to mess up their brand. They have identified 12 ways that brands go awry. Their updated book on branding, Six Rules of Brand Revitalization, is a must-read on the subject.

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“Arrogance leads to complacency which destroys innovation and leaves you out of date.”

The Arrogance of Success

How do you pull a culture out of arrogance, especially if they don’t realize it?

Often it takes a sense of urgency, a perception of an impending crisis. Change is difficult. An arrogant culture resists change until it seems that there is no option. Change or die. Dramatize the need for change. The most dangerous disease is complacency. Arrogance can lead to complacency. Complacency can keep your eyes closed to innovation and leave you out of date with your customers. The common expression, “Go back to basics,” is often used to defend resisting change. Going backwards will not guide marketers how to best go forward.

Culture change is led from the top. The leader sets the tone. Sometimes a leadership change is necessary. This is what happened at McDonald’s in 2002. The new leadership immediately dramatized the need for change. Jim Cantalupo, the new CEO, created a sense of urgency.

We recommend the four steps of Breaking the LOCK on Brand Troubles: Fix Leadership; then leadership can fix the Organization alignment. Cultural change is an imperative. Knowledge is a powerful force. Become a learning culture…

12 Branding Sins

1: The arrogance of success

2: The comfort of complacency

3: The building of organizational barriers and bureaucratic processes

4: The focus on analyst satisfaction rather than on customer satisfaction

5: The belief that what worked yesterday will work today

6: The failure to innovate

7: The lack of focus on the core customer

8: The backtracking to basics

9: The loss of relevance

10: The lack of a coherent Plan to Win

11: The lack of a balanced Brand-Business Scorecard

12: The disregard for the changing world

Is there one that is most often the culprit in brand failures?

As we say in the book, the Twelve Tendencies for Trouble are not independent of each other. These are all interconnected forces. A company that succumbs to one seems to succumb to more than one. There is no single culprit. Each of the Twelve Tendencies for Trouble must be avoided.

Building the Bonds that Make a Business Great

If you’re a leader, you know how important it is to create and maintain a culture of trust. But knowing it and doing it are different. How do leaders at all levels of an organization make this a reality?

JetBlue Chairman Joel Peterson’s career has provided him a window into the importance of trust. In addition to his role at JetBlue, Joel is a consulting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and chairman of an investment firm. His new book,The 10 Laws of Trust: Building the Bonds that Make a Business Great, is an exceptionally great read.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Joel about all things “trust.”

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“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” –George MacDonald

Increase Your Trust

What’s the Joel Peterson definition of trust?

Empowering and turning over control to another person. It takes the same leap of faith as when we trust a pilot to fly a plane or a surgeon to operate on us. We give trust in increments, measure results, assess risks and grant more trust until we find we’ve extended our reach, expanded our horizons and found greater joy in our interactions with others.

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“Accountability is the requisite companion to empowerment.” –Joel Peterson

You’ve seen the inside of many organizations and leadership teams from your vantage point as Chairman, as professor, as an investor, as a CFO, etc. When you first walk into an organization, what signs do you see that would lead you to say, “This is an organization with a high degree of trust?”

Surprisingly, high trust organizations are ones with conflict – with respectful disagreements that are ventilated, addressed and put to bed so they don’t fester underground. The best ideas win, not the most powerful or senior people. And they’re typically places where there’s humor, self-deprecation, stories, traditions and people who genuinely like each other.

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“A man who trusts nobody is apt to be a man nobody trusts.” –Harold Macmillan

Cultivate a Culture of Trust

What’s a leader’s role in cultivating a culture of trust? How have you seen this go wrong?

The leader’s role is vital. An EVP at Cisco once told me that she found she couldn’t be happier than her unhappiest child. In like manner, an organization’s boundary of trust is set by its leader. It’ll never expand beyond the leader’s trustworthiness. If he or she has a big “say-do gap,” the contagion will spread. If leaders compartmentalize their lives and file violations of trust under the “private label,” they’ll be mistrusted. People are smart. They’ll figure it out, and it’s not long before their wariness infects everyone and everything. As fear takes over, people become less likely to innovate, to take risks, to trust. This can either explode in trust-destroying outcomes such as the recent VW scandal or end up in bureaucratic inaction, caution and failure to perform such as at the Veterans’ Administration.

Respect is the medium of exchange between parties that are building trust. A failure to show respect is a trust show-stopper – even if you’re not the person who is being treated disrespectfully. This extends from teammates to suppliers to lenders to shareholders to customer. Nothing shows greater respect for another than listening to them. It’s at the heart of customer service and team-building. I think of it as listening without agenda, listening to understand, not to respond, to agree or disagree, not until there’s a break so I can respond.

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“In a trust-driven culture, respect is prized at every level.” –Joel Peterson

If you are looking to develop a strong global brand, you will find two names consistently mentioned as “go-to” experts: Larry Light and Joan Kiddon. They have just released a second edition of their book on branding, Six Rules of Brand Revitalization.

I recently spoke with the authors about their new book and the rules of branding.

6 Rules of Brand Revitalization

1. Refocus the organization.

Where do most corporate leaders get it wrong?

They tend to believe that “refocus” can happen through tools and templates and HR seminars. Refocus is more than filling in the blanks and talking the talk. When there is a conflict between strategy and culture, culture wins. A commitment to change requires refocusing of the cultural mindset that emanates from the top down. Merely embarking on a training program to encourage a focus on new tools, templates, and techniques can distract from the need to accomplish both the behavioral and attitudinal modifications that foster culture change.

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“Refocusing an organization around common goals is the first step for brand revitalization.” -Light / Kiddon

6 Rules of Brand Revitalization

What tip would you provide to a leadership team in the midst of this refocus?

Leaders are different from commanders. Commanders manage by telling people what to do. They create acceptors. Leaders create believers. Acceptors go through the motions complying with the new processes and behaviors. Believers have true commitment that this refocus is a better path to a successful future. Acceptors are not the same as adherents. The leader must be the one to set the tone and drive the change for all to see and emulate. Leaders must demonstrate commitment if they expect people to become believers in the new world.

What are the best ways to stay on top of changing customer expectations?

Stay up-to-date with all available information. Read a variety of sources, not just in your business’ field but also across many disciplines. Include regular market research reports. But also include what is happening in the world around us. Be observant. Be informed. Be open to new ideas.

In this world of access to “big data’” there is now a focus on data analytics. Analysis can tell us about what is happening today. Analysis is about the decomposition of data. But real insight does not come from analysis. It comes from creative synthesis. Analysis is about taking data apart. Synthesis is about putting together disparate sources of information in original ways. Synthesis is about detecting patterns that others fail to see. Keeping a brand relevant will involve both analysis and synthesis. Make sure that the organization is open and conducive to creative synthesis.

The total brand experience includes consideration, shopping, purchase, use, service, online, offline, brand communications, handling of customer complaints, and so on. Every touch point with the customer is a part of the total brand experience. It includes every aspect of the brand promise: functional benefits, emotional and social rewards, solutions to problems, and so forth.

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“Every touch point with the customer is a part of the total brand experience.” -Light / Kiddon

Some companies are leveraging the power of the Internet in such a powerful way they are increasing market share, earnings, and revenue at an incredible rate. Others are struggling, not fully realizing the potential or understanding what it takes to win with today’s technology.

It’s All About Attitude

What differentiates winners from losers?

John Patrick’s answer is that it is all about attitude. He says companies with a “net attitude” have an extraordinary advantage over those who don’t.

Having a net attitude “makes constituents happy,” says John Patrick. Because your “website is your brand,” it’s important to make it accessible, easy to use, and focused relentlessly on a positive customer experience.

Joe Calloway has studied businesses that consistently create positive experiences. His new book, Magnetic: The Art Of Attracting Business, is a look behind the scenes at the strategy, the people, and the art behind becoming a magnetic business. In these organizations, growth is a result of happy customers sending more and more business and referrals. Employees are happy, helping to recruit others. And the momentum continues unabated to create even more success.

I recently talked with Joe about what it takes to become a magnetic business.

Become a Magnetic Business

Would you share one example of a business that is magnetic?

I think that the business pictured on the first page of the book is a classic example of a magnetic business. The Pancake Pantry has a line of customers in front every morning, rain or shine, sleet or snow. This truly is what every business of any kind aspires to: to have customers so loyal to and enthusiastic about your business that they’d be willing to stand in line, in the rain, to give you their money.

Pancake Pantry excels at the basics of what a restaurant should be and have, including a great location, great food, great service. But here’s the lesson: there are no gimmicks. There’s no contrived “wow” factor. They simply offer excellent value to their customers, and those customers tell other customers. Thus, the line out front.

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“It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.” -Jony Ive

Be consistently excellent. Consistency of performance is the great brand builder.

If you let these factors guide your thinking, you’ve got a magnetic mindset.

Don’t Overdo Social Media

You teach and talk about the importance of social media but also about overthinking, overworking or overdoing its role relative to everything else. As I say this, what comes to mind as “magnetic advice” about social media?

Social media is vitally important in today’s marketplace and becoming more important all the time. Of course you should participate on social media, but be selective. You don’t have to be on everything – that would take up all your time and drive you crazy trying to keep up. Where is your target market? If they’re on Pintrest, be there with them. My market is on twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, so that’s where I am.

But here’s the key: What you say about yourself on social media is insignificant in importance and impact compared to what your customers/clients say about you. No ad campaign in the world has the positive impact of having 100 reviews of your business with almost all of them being 5 Star reviews.

The way to use social media to grow your business and attract new customers is to do such a great job on a handful of vitally important things that matter to your customers. That’s really one of the core messages in Magnetic: The Art Of Attracting Business.

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Nielsen: 43% of consumers more likely to buy when learning about it through social media.

The Win-Win strategy is what has made me successful. It’s the single most powerful strategy known and is the foundation of how any consistently successful business or individual relates to other people.

My version of Win-Win is to always think in terms of what kind of experience my actions will create for my clients and others. How does doing business with me make them feel?

We all want people to love doing business with us, and if we are to create that, then we have to play Win-Win with them.

It’s the simplest and most effective relationship and business strategy known.